Beyond-the-Basic Productivity Tools (BBPT)

Lesson Idea Name: Limit and Continuity Project

Content Area: AP Calculus AB
Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Content Standard Addressed:

Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE)

MC.A.2 Students will demonstrate knowledge of both the definition and graphical interpretation of continuity
of a function.
a. Evaluate limits of functions and apply properties of limits, including one-sided limits.
b. Estimate limits from graphs or tables of data.
c. Describe asymptotic behavior in terms of limits involving infinity.
d. Apply the definition of continuity to a function at a point and determine if a function is continuous
over an interval.

College Board Standards for AP Calculus AB

Learning Objective:
LIM-1.B Interpret limits expressed in analytic notation.

Essential Knowledge:
LIM-1.B.1 A limit can be expressed in multiple ways, including graphically, numerically, and analytically.

Technology Standard Addressed:

ISTE Standards for Students (ISTE-S)

3a Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their
intellectual or creative pursuits.
3b Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of information, media, data, or
other resources.
6c Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects
such as visualizations, models, or simulations.
6d Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended
audiences.

ISTE Standards for Educators (ISTE-T)

1a Set professional learning goals to explore and apply pedagogical approaches made possible by technology
and reflect on their effectiveness.
3b Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters
digital literacy and media fluency.
6a Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent
and group settings.
7a Provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect on their learning using
technology.
7b Use technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments that
accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback to students, and inform instruction.
Selected Technology Tool:
• Discovery Education: Interactive Boards
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):
• https://www.geogebra.org/m/JQRHsGRt

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(helpful example on creating piecewise functions in GeoGebra)
• https://wiki.geogebra.org/en/Keyboard_Shortcuts
(helpful for typing commonly used symbols like pi, infinity, less-than or equal, and greater-than or
equal in GeoGebra)
• http://www.asciitable.com/
(helpful in general for typing commonly used math symbols)
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):
☐ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☒ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Visual/Audio Impairments and Mild Intellectual Disabilities
This Limit and Continuity Group Project is designed for all students, and students experiencing visual or audio
impairments should have no difficulty completing the assignment. Creating an interactive poster board may
require some students experiencing visual impairments to enlarge the screen or text throughout the process,
but that is easily achievable (i.e. CTRL/CMD + + on most computers or through a button on the page). For
students experiencing mild intellectual disabilities, the project can be easily modified to meet the needs of
the students. In other words, they are still expected to complete the project, but I might allow them to have
fewer moving parts on their page so that it is not overwhelming (i.e. still requiring all necessary components,
but eliminate sensory overload). An additional strategy to support students experiencing mild intellectual
disabilities is to provide a list of credible, relevant resources to choose from to lessen the stress of having to
find reliable resources on their own on top of having to post links to them and cite them. Furthermore, all
students will benefit from a vocabulary bank of words that are central to the ideas of limits and continuity
(i.e. written on the board, posted online on the class website, and spoken verbally). Coupled with the help
from their peers in their group, students experiencing visual/audio impairments and/or mild intellectual
disabilities should have the resources needed to complete this task.
English Language Learners
Including a word bank (i.e. in English along with corresponding translation in their native language) of key
terminology surrounding limits and continuity that should be used in the group project will help English
Language Learners.
Physical Disabilities
Alternative keyboards could be used for students experiencing a physical disability that prevents them from
being able to interact effectively with hardware in order to use the software on Discovery Education to create
their interactive poster board. Alternatively, I would allow for students who could not effectively use a
computer to provide a handwritten version of the project (e.g. temporarily broken non-dominant hand/arm
where the student can still write but it may be challenging to type), or if that is also too much to ask, I would
allow students experiencing physical impairments to present their group findings verbally to me on an
individual basis (i.e. not ask them to do any more or less than what is expected of other students; simply a
different format). All-in-all, students experiencing physical disabilities should be able to work alongside their
group members and contribute to the final product mentally if not physically (i.e.
typing/formatting/searching).
Attention Difficulties
To accommodate students experiencing attention difficulties, there is more than one way of presenting the
information on the interactive poster boards (e.g. attach pictures, videos, documents [Excel, Word,
PowerPoint], links to resources/interactives on the web, and text) which gives the students a choice in how

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best to convey the material. Furthermore, the project that I am giving them will have students actively
participating in groups and experimenting with methods that demonstrate that they understand the concepts
which could take on a variety of forms. This strategy of allowing students to collaborate and be creative (i.e.
expectations but ultimately open-ended possibilities) tends to keep students experiencing attention
difficulties actively engaged. Additionally, for this project, students are free to visit relevant educational
websites that pertain to the concepts of limits and continuity to help them generate ideas and develop a
strategy to relay their knowledge via a variety of media. This process of encouraging students to visit various
sites relates back to the expectations listed in the ISTE-S standards of students being able to determine which
websites contribute meaningfully to their research/material.
Lesson idea implementation:
The Limit and Continuity Group Project will ask students to complete an interactive poster board in groups of
3-4 students. The groups will be organized based off of their performance is particular sections on the
previous exam involving limits and continuity. There are three primary sections concerning limits on the
exam: numerical, graphical, and analytical evaluation of limits. If a student needs improvement in multiple
areas regarding limits and continuity, then they must choose the area that they need to improve on the most,
or if they seem to struggle equally in many of them, then they should choose the one that they want to
improve on. Student input is significant for establishing competency, but they should also know which areas
feel more comfortable than others and which topics need additional practice. Also, if a student performed
well on the exam, then they will still need to participate in the group project. They can either choose their
own section to investigate more deeply, perhaps even a more rigorous topic outside of the scope of the
course, or I can assign them to a group.

The teacher will ask the students to complete an interactive poster board on Discovery Education in groups
(i.e. 2-4 students per group), based on the results from their recent exam involving limits and continuity. The
teacher should have an idea of which students are expected to be in the respective groups with notes on the
students who may need improvement in multiple areas or who performed well in all areas in order to place
them in a group if needed. The project should take approximately two weeks to complete. Student learning
will be primarily assessed through the information on their interactive poster boards; if the students had a
misunderstanding of the concept that was being addressed (e.g. classifying the discontinuity for an equation
as a removable discontinuity when it is actually a jump discontinuity or confusing continuity with
differentiability), then I will be able to address the error in a future class. Despite having already covering the
material and testing the students, I believe that it is significant to give the students an opportunity to
collaborate and improve in the areas that they struggled with concerning limits and continuity, because the
foundation for limits and continuity is crucial to the remainder of the course, not just the first exam, regarding
both differentiation and integration. I will extend the student learning to a higher level, because the students
will be required to design their own functions and evaluate how they are related to the concepts of limits and
continuity as described in class. Both creation and evaluation are present in the upper tiers of Bloom’s
Taxonomy. Additionally, the creation of the interactive poster boards will enable the students to show me
that they are capable of using software to model functions that demonstrate the ideas of limits and continuity
(i.e. uploading a screenshot of GeoGebra or an Excel or Word document in the file/image box), along with
showing me that they can succinctly and effectively explain why their examples work for each case (i.e. text
box), and also showing me that they are adept at finding relevant and credible information on the internet
(i.e. uploading videos, e-references, simulations for sources where students can find additional information
about the topics of limits and continuity). Students can use the variety of tools provided by interactive poster
boards to share their knowledge, all in one place, outside of the classroom which is operating at the higher
levels of LoTi. Feedback to students will be given in the form of a standard rubric that will be used to evaluate
the work of each group (i.e. mainly concerned with verifying that all discontinuities had at least one example
and that an example for a function being continuous but indifferentiable was covered with appropriate
explanations for each).

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Opening:
“We recently covered material involving limits and continuity, and last class, you took an exam on these
concepts. Today, I would like to introduce the Limit and Continuity Project that will give you an opportunity to
improve on some of the questions that you may have missed on the exam. You must complete the project
using the interactive poster boards located on Discover Education, but there are many features offered that
will allow you to demonstrate your knowledge such as a box for uploading Excel and Word files, textboxes for
describing your examples, and image and video boxes for including images from GeoGebra or images/video
from relevant educational websites. Be creative!”
Instruction:
• Inform the students that this will be a group project of 2-4 students per group. The project will be due
two weeks from the time it was assigned. Students should go to the group that they struggled with
most on the last test (i.e. graphical, numerical, analytical).
• If a student struggled most with the graphical concept of limits, then they should use GeoGebra to
explore different equations that can be used to model each type of discontinuity as well as a case for
when a function is continuous yet indifferentiable. If a student struggled most with the numerical
representation of limits through tables, then they are expected to use Excel to model an equation for
each type of discontinuity, as well as for the condition when a function is continuous but
indifferentiable, and create a table to display their problem. If a student struggled most on the
analytical portion of solving limits algebraically, then they are expected to use the equation tool in
Word to write a problem for each type of discontinuity, as well as for when a function is continuous
but indifferentiable, and they should solve for each of them showing all necessary steps.
• Let the students know that you will be grading them primarily on how well they are able to
demonstrate the concepts of infinite, jump, removable, and oscillating discontinuities, along with
when a function is continuous but indifferentiable. Aesthetics of the poster boards are nice, but the
primary focus of this project is to build mastery skills in areas that are currently lacking and represent
that improvement through various media (i.e. links, videos, documents).
• Additionally, emphasizing collaboration and suggesting a distillment of one large task into
manageable parts that can be assigned to individuals (i.e. not everyone focusing on the same task)
would teach students valuable interpersonal skills.
Closing:
• Review the submitted assignments with the class and ensure that students have the opportunity to
ask questions about remaining areas of confusion/difficulty.
• Reiterate the GSE, College Board, and ISTE standards for students.

Reflective Practice: After designing this lesson idea, how do you feel the activities you created could impact
student learning? You may have designed this idea as an introductory activity to a unit of study. With that in
mind, what could be done to further extend the lesson? Are there other technology tools that could further
enhance this project?
I feel like the project that I assigned for the students will aid in their development of creative, evaluative,
interpersonal, and technical skills through the use of interactive poster boards. This assignment is intended to
be a review of material, specifically targeted at where the students are struggling, following the lessons and
test on limits and continuity. I could potentially extend the lesson by getting students to complete a similar
project before the exam to try to eliminate confusion before they are tested on the material, and this might
also build on the fact that we want to maintain good records of our students’ progress which pertains to
before, during, and after examination. Some other technology tools that might enhance this project are
Beyond Basic Productivity Tools involving concept mapping in programs such as Bubbl.us or Popplet.

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